Current events in the words of the students of Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur

Month: January 2017

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Samajwadi Party and Congress has come together to contest UP assembly polls in order to thwart BJP’s attempt to storm back to power after 15 years. It is expected that this alliance will lead to bumper electoral harvest.

Akhilesh Yadav will become the chief minister to make country’s secular fabric stronger. The idea is to uproot communal BJP and make UP a leading state by removing both BJP and Mayawati’s BSP.

Both the party shares common ideologies that is to thwart BJP’s divisive politics and at the same time boost secularism and promote communal and social harmony. Moreover they believe in social justice and development, peace and good atmosphere.
In this alliance, SP will have the lion’s share of 298 of 403 seats, Congress will contest the remaining 105 seats.

It is asserted that the alliance would set an example in development. The reason the congress party has been pushing for more seats is the increase in seat share as the congress party’s vote share has seen a steady decline over the last two decades.

Even top non-BJP leaders like West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee extended full support to the alliance , RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav compared it to stitching a Bihar-like alliance in U.P.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Donald trump has finally taken the presidency oath to take charge of the world’s oldest democracy. From managing a multi-billion dollar business, Trump now sits in the seat of the world’s most powerful person. The 45th President of the United States, Trump is described as a crazy protectionist and strong nationalist. Trump has been fiercely pitching for protecting the American jobs against outsourcing.

Trump is strongly advocating against outsourcing and bring reforms in H1B visa system. This would have a direct impact on the Indian IT industry which depends on the US for almost 60% of its revenues. Outsourcing to Indian IT firms saves millions for the US companies and benefits the Indian IT industry. It is a win-win business but this has impacted the American job market for locals. Stricter H1B policies and reforms may force Indian companies to hire more locals which would trim their margins.

Trump considers himself as India’s fan and a true friend. Given the large contribution of the Indian IT industry to the US economy, most of Trump’s extreme thoughts are unlikely to see light of the day. Even Indian companies have moved forward to insulate themselves from any future uncertainties. Indian IT giants TCS, HCL, Infosys and Wipro have started building a strong brand image in the US and have involved themselves in a number of CSR initiatives. Only time will say, whether the way forward is tough for IT companies. But there is a dire need for Indian IT giants to reduce their over dependency on the US and chalk out strategies in the face of technological and political shifts.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

PM Narendra Modi launched a surprise in November, demonetization of 500 and 1000 Rs notes.This initiative resulted in a huge disorder and confusion as government took out 86% or 15 lakh crore of the circulating cash. 98% of transactions in India are based on cash, which were almost stopped at one go.

The first criticism that came out is the lack of readiness of the entire exercise. From statistics, the amount of cash that is there in India and digital penetration in India do not directly point to readiness of economy or of the people. The ratio of money held in notes and coins to the amount that is held in savings and demand drafts was 51% which is high when compared to other emerging economies. Secondly, the value of notes and coins as percentage of GDP was 12.04%. Less than 3% of the value transactions include card payments in the year ending March 2014. Fewer than 2% of Indians have used a mobile phone to send or receive money compared to 60% of Kenyans. So, practically there is a significant usage of cash in the economy and though the digital penetration is high, usage of digital modes for transfer of funds has been low. On the supply side, the capacity of 3 printing presses in India is not enough to print the banned amount. Also, the circulation of money has come down as there are less notes of lower denomination in market.

These statistics reveal that neither the government was prepared to immediately pump in deficit cash nor the country was prepared to migrate to a new system. Lack of readiness has resulted in a sudden economic slow down. The human productivity was also affected in terms of people waiting in queues at the ATM’s. There has been reports of people loosing lives. Lack of digital literacy in terms of security is the main reason why people are reluctant to migrate to online platforms like Paytm, mobikwik for money related transactions even in such critical situations. Government should take up more initiatives like BHIM , SBI buddy to improve awareness and trust among people.

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Thousands of people gathered at Marina Beach,Chennai, to protest against the ban on Jallikattu,a bull taming sport in Tamil Nadu. It is awful to see how masses fail to recognize the pain of animal and injuries caused to people in the name of tradition and culture.In order to make the bulls angry and make them fight they are beaten,poked,doped,irritants are rubbed into their mouths,tails are twisted and they are dragged by their nose until they bleed.The participants are more prone to danger than the animal .In just over four years, from 2010 to 2014, at least 1,100 people have been injured due to Jallikattu-type events, and 17 people have died. However, these figures were quoted by the media, the original figures are bound to be higher.

I believe tradition is never a sufficient justification for cruelty, and a cruel tradition should never be allowed to define a culture.It is not just about one animal,one state or one culture it applies to any animal, any state and any culture. Sati was also once a part of our culture and it was considered an honor for women. Women, some willingly some forcefully were burnt to death on her husband’s funeral pyre.Had it not been banned? So why not save life of people and animal from Jallikattu?

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events and/ or publicly available information. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

Background

Since the 1950s, North Korea has been the most secretive country about its nuclear program. The country has been developing its nuclear arsenal so secretively that most powerful nation in the world is wary and feels threatened. N-Korea joined Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty(NPT) in 1985 which aims at nuclear disarmament and encourages peaceful use of nuclear energy. However, in 2002 US revealed that N-Korea was developing nuclear weapons which violated NPT. In 2003, N-Korea quit the NPT.

Opinion

How can one trust a nation who does not keep its own word? Certainly, N-Korea is not a threat only to its rival US but also to world peace and every nation should stand up united against such notorious country. Recent news says N-Korea possesses the hydrogen bomb which more disastrous than the atom bomb. This nation needs to be stopped and if possible every country should lay sanctions on N-Korea to make it possible.